A Musical March

Many thanks to Bob for playing The Trains Today on his BBC Introducing show.

There will be an album (Tales from a Lost Generation) out very soon and I’m just putting the finishing touches to a new website.

This blog will be replaced (by Wednesday hopefully) but for anyone wanting another listen here is The Trains Today. The other tracks on the blog (apart from Glory of Your Gaze) were tidied away on Soundcloud in preparation for the album.

The last recording of the month (tomorrow will be the studio recording from earlier in the month, in case you haven’t been paying attention…).

I was supposed to be doing ‘Pig & Whistle Christmas’ as a special Easter bonus (don’t ask) but I couldn’t get the chords right. I decided to give up and go with another festival based song. Some of it needs reworking but it was a short notice substitution.

This is in the style of Buddy Holly (at least that was the plan, I seem to remember). Possibly could be a touch quicker but there’s a lot of wordage to fit in!

This is yet another old song that I’ve decided to leave the coda off. I think I must have had a penchant for adding endings to songs that not only didn’t fit, but left large parts of the earlier narrative a nonsense. Actually, I’ll blame Rob again!

Not a bad song all told. Could do with some attention and a decent arrangement.

I decided to set up early today so I could relax into the evening and then wander over to the Pig on time. Ooops!

I started writing this late last year and it began the day as another unfinished song. I had one good verse, one okay verse and the chorus. I’ve played around with it all day and ended up with a finished article of sorts. I think the bridge might change and there’s a line in the second verse I’m not sure of.

The recording isn’t great – the voice is quite dry and it’s pitched a bit on the low side. I’ll endeavour to re-record it soon…

I wish I’d planned ahead and taken a screen capture of the days work. A bit like those arty things you see all over youtube but more a glimpse into the songwriting process as it goes on in my head. It might have been interesting.

I did try to stick some keyboard on, but after a day of fannying about I realised that what’s in my head is rarely what comes out the other end (the speakers FFS!). I did manage to rewire the computer/keyboard controller/Zoom R16 so that I can record directly to the Zoom; one accomplishment if nothing else. Whether we get to see the fruits of that labour before the end of March is anyone’s guess…

The bridge has a 60’s twang to it and sounds rather nice. I’ve kept the guitar fairly simple – when I sing this live I tend to thrash seven shades out of the strings for no reason other than I can. I’ll try to be more delicate in future. I promise.